got a question here .are coco joes still being made and sold? i just scored a couple from a thift store,1st one 5" KU TIKI #110, the other 11"ALII LONO.# 123. the thing is they are still shrunk wraped in clear plastic,with little plactic orcids at the base. and they are perfect,labels on the back are pristine. are these NOS or someone re-maketing them and then dumping at a charity store.OR, could the just have been puchased not all that long ago?when did production stop ,if it did? THANKS TD

CJs went out of business a few years ago - maybe 1998, give or take. BUT they live on in a couple ways other than secondhand. Some of their designs show up incorporated into Chiefly tikis from the present day. For an example of the Chiefly comparison with a CocoJoe, here's a pic cross-posted from that old picture thread on CJs and HIP.

Old CocoJoes on the left, new made-in-China Chiefly on the right.

Also there seem to be some contemporary sources of new CocoJoes stuff. I'm not sure what's the story, but I saw a whole bunch of CocoJoes for sale on the shelves of a giftshop in the int'l section of the Honolulu airport 2 or 3 years ago. They had a cheaper look though, like someone fabricated them by making a mold straight off of a handful of original CJ figures. Lots of little dings and bubbles. But anyway I'm guessing you're talking about the Alii Lone like the tall black one in BK's post, and that's one of the more oddball CJ designs, and definitely not one of the remakes I saw at the airport. So that's probably NOS.

I ran into the owner of a trophy shop who buys new versions of Coco Joe's and HIP items to put on his trophies. He said that a guy in Sand Island (near La Mariana) makes these. I've bought a couple of tikis at the swap meet with HIP markings, but with CoCo Joe's paper labels. Some of the supposed hapawood items look like white plaster stained brown, kinda of crummy looking...the newer ones are also lighter in weight, not really lava like anymore. hoku

I was in Waikiki last week, and they are selling new Coco Joes items in the ABC stores. The new ones are poorly finished, they look and feel like plastic, are lighter in weight, and the rhinestone eyes are very cheap without any sparkle. You can definitely tell by looking at them, that these are not the same quality as the ones from the 1970's.

It might be hard to tell the difference in a photograph however, so I'll be much more hesitant to buy Coco Joes items on e-bay now.
_________________

I was going to post this in Tiki Finds at first, but then decided to see if I could find a better thread, and here it is!
So, not exactly a "tiki find" this weekend, but my folks just got back from a few days on Oahu and gave me, of all things, a CocoJoes Ku that they found AT THE AIRPORT! It's identical (almost) to the HW137 that CJ used to produce. I found an HW137 a few months ago at an antique shop for $10, and my folks bring one home from Hawaii. Imagine my surpise when they tell me they bought it at a gift shop in the Honolulu airport.
Here's a shot of the original HW137, not a great shot:
The one I just got is a little smaller, maybe by 1/2 an inch, and the color is darker. Unlike Ookoo Lady's experience, this thing I've got is pretty hefty, and pretty comparable to the original. The wood grain looks a little more fake, but that's the only noticeable difference. There are some other subtle changes-- label color and text and the addition of what appears to be a copyright date, but if this is a cheap remake, it's a pretty good one! I'll try to post a picture of them side by side when I get home from work.
Crazy!
_________________

So, just got back from the Hawaii vacation a few days ago (see the Hawaii vacation tips thread over in tiki travel for the full travelogue). The airport gift stores and actually a few of the souvenir stands in the international marketplace in Waikiki not only carry the new CocoJoes, but I also saw a few HIP tikis while I was walking around. They don't have the nice look of the old ones, but the nice thing is that I've seen some CocoJoes pieces that I didn't even know existed. Better yet, I was able to buy some of those designs. Granted, it's a relatively cheap copy, but it's better than nothing.
One of the stores in the Honolulu airport carries the big ones, like 12" tall, for $24. Not bad, but I couldn't get one. I didn't have any room left in backpacks or duffel bags for even one more tiki! The horror!

From what I hear, there is a guy still making CoCo Joes figures near Sand Island (La Mariana area). A friend who was at the CoCo Joe bankruptcy auction a few years ago said someone bought the company name. The funny part is that they seem to be making some of the HIP figures also, but they have CoCo Joe labels on them...sounds like dirty pool...Aloha, Freddie

On 2006-11-10 01:56, HOUSE OF KU wrote:From what I hear, there is a guy still making CoCo Joes figures near Sand Island (La Mariana area). A friend who was at the CoCo Joe bankruptcy auction a few years ago said someone bought the company name. The funny part is that they seem to be making some of the HIP figures also, but they have CoCo Joe labels on them...sounds like dirty pool...Aloha, Freddie

That's exactly the case. The HIP tiki I bought says "A HIP Original" on the bottom, must be part of the mold, and then on the back is a CJ label. Whoever bought the company must have molds from both CJ and HIP. It's a shame the quality isn't the same. The older CJ tikis are obviously a little better when put side by side. Still, I'll take a cheap reproduction over a non-existent original.

When we were at the Hala Kahiki for the Exotica event in 2003 (man, has it been that long?), their gift shop had a whole kiosk of Coco Joe stuff. At first I thought it was some kind of leftover overstock that they still had for sale given their own long heritage as an establishment. Kinda like how you can sometimes find rare old booze in old liquor stores.

But being the CJ nerd that I am, I recognized some quality differences that suggested those were some kind of new repros. I also noticed a "HIP-o-Joe" like what you describe - an old HIP figure with a Coco Joe label. You could still see the HIP writing on the bottom under the thick globby finish. So, having a nerdy collector image to maintain, I bought a bunch.